This week’s episode of Simpsons (Jan 25th, 2015) was dedicated to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. These are considered to be some of the most innovative companies today, making huge strides in the electric car and commercial spaceflight industries. But who is the man really behind all this?
Musk standing next to the latest Tesla Model X Concept (Source: Forbes)
Elon was born in South Africa in 1971, he was the oldest of three children and was incredibly curious from a young age. After working his way through all of the books he could find, he started reading encyclopedias. When he turned 10, he was administered a test by IBM that showed he had one of the highest possible aptitudes for computer programming.
He got his his bachelor's degree in engineering and business from UPenn and intended to go to Stanford to get his ph.D. However he dropped out of school in two days and immersed himself in the Silicon Valley. Musk’s first big success was PayPal, which he helped create with Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Max Levchin. eBay bought the company for AED 5.54 billion in 2002.
Source: The Simpsons on Fox - Animation Domination via YouTube
He went on to launch SpaceX in 2002, with the goal of making space travel available to consumers. On June 14, 2012, Musk celebrated the first successful mission by a private space company to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. SpaceX has received a AED 9.61 billion contract from NASA to develop the capsule for the Dragon V2 capsule, a manned space craft that will help transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. Space X was recently in the news after the test of an unmanned space craft had gone haywire.
on-june-14-2012-musk-celebrated-the-first-successful-mission-by-a-private-space-company-to-deliver-supplies-to-the-international-space-station Source: Reuters
During the same time frame, he joined Tesla Motors in 2004, becoming CEO and product architect in 2008. Tesla Motors is enjoying enormous success due to its design and performance. The most recent model available to consumers, the P85D has met with rave reviews.
(Source: SpaceX via Vine)
That doesn't mean it's always been easy for Musk. At the end of 2008, he fought through a near nervous breakdown to keep both Tesla and SpaceX alive when both nearly went bankrupt simultaneously. Rather than save one and let one die, he split all his remaining money between them, taking a risk and saving both.
Tesla Model S P85D in Ruby Red at the Detroit Auto Show 2015 (Source: Autoblog)
The South African-born self-made billionaire has often been compared to the Tony Stark character as portrayed in the "Iron Man" movies by Robert Downy Jr. He is only 44, and he's worth AED 34.38 billion, according to Forbes.
(Source: Bloomberg Business via YouTube)
But he’s also revered by others in the tech industry. In March, Google CEO Larry Page said he would rather hand over his wealth to Elon Musk rather than to a philanthropic cause. "He wants to go to Mars. That’s a worthy goal," Page told Charlie Rose. "You’re working because you want to change the world and make it better.” In October 2013, The Atlantic hailed Musk as possibly the greatest inventor alive. Vanity Fair named him the no. 1 disruptor in their "New Establishment" issue of 2014.
(Source: Bloomberg Business via YouTube)
It is easy to see why Elon Musk is considered to be the equivalent of a Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist Tony Stark of the real world.